When playing a non-electronic game with one or more other people, there is typically much social interaction that adds to the enjoyment of the players. Verbal communication is also an element of game play, since comments made by a player to an opponent during a game can cause the opponent to lose concentration and perform poorly, while comments made to team members can provide encouragement, thereby promoting their quality of play. Communication and other forms of interaction between persons playing games are thus clearly important elements of the gaming experience.
The verbal repartee between players that is so important to game play has become an important element in electronic games played over the Internet and other network links. Players at different sites are now able to verbally communicate with each other using techniques similar to those developed to convey voice over the Internet or other networks (i.e., voice over IP). Much of the functionality and many of the techniques of voice over IP are applicable to and have been used in schemes to enable verbal communications over a network between players of electronic games. The verbal communication greatly adds to the enjoyment of playing games over the Internet or other networks. Systems can operate in peer-to-peer mode, in which voice data are transferred over the network directly between computing devices, or may employ a voice server to receive the voice data from one game player computer and forward the data over the network to one or more other computers connected to the network for playing the game.
In contrast to a personal computer (PC) game system in which only one player is supported on each PC, a multiplayer game console supports a plurality of players on each console. Voice communication systems have been developed for game consoles that enable verbal communications between a plurality of players who are playing a game. The verbal communication can be between players on the same game console or between players on different game consoles that are coupled in communication, either directly or over a network, such as the Internet.
While verbal communication during game play is generally a desirable feature, if abused or misused by a specific player, it may become bothersome to one or more other players in a game. The cause of the annoyance to a player may be the repeated use of profanity or sexually explicit language by the specific player, or may simply be language or comments that a player feels to be socially unacceptable. Since each player has an individual reaction to certain verbal behavior, the causes for a player to be annoyed by the verbal communication with a specific player are virtually unlimited. Nevertheless, it will be important to enable any player who becomes annoyed with the verbal communication of a specific player to prevent further verbal communications and/or other types of interaction with that specific other player.
In addition to voice communication, participants in an online session can interact in other ways. For example, a first player in a virtual environment or game may affect the state of a second player in the environment as a result of some act (or failure to act) by the first player. Players in a games often interact in combat or other adversarial struggles, since many games are based on some form of competition between the players. In massive multiplayer games, a player who has acted in a manner that another player finds unacceptable may participate without interacting with the other player most of the time, but it should be possible to prevent or limit the interaction, so that one player is not visible to the other, and/or is unable to affect the state of the other player. In online sessions with smaller numbers of participants, it may be preferable to block the player objected to from participating, although simply controlling or limiting the interaction between the players is still a viable alternative.
It should therefore be possible for a person to block another party perceived as objectionable from participating in a game or other type of online session in which the person is a participant, or to “ghost” another party viewed as objectionable, by preventing communication (voice, video, or chat), or other types of interaction with the other party in an online game or session. In unidirectional ghosting, the person who ghosts another party deemed objectionable should be aware of and/or capable of determining that the ghosted party is present, but ghosted parties should not be able to perceive that they have been ghosted and should not be aware that a ghosting person is present in the online session. In bidirectional ghosting, neither the ghosted party nor the ghosting person should be aware of or capable of determining that the other is present. Similarly, if bidirectional blocking is permitted, a prospective participant should be unable to join a game or other type of online session if a blocked party is already a participant. The prior art does not provide any mechanism to enable a player to anonymously block or ghost an annoying player in a specific game played over a network, particularly in massive multiplayer games, where the number of players and the potentially large lists of blocked/ghosted players has been viewed as creating too great a complexity to implement.
Accordingly, there is a clear need for a technique that enables blocking and/or ghosting and/or muting to be implemented in online sessions without causing an undue burden in the implementation of these goals. The concept is not limited to online games, but instead, should also be applicable to many other types of online sessions in which there is interaction between participants, such as in voice and text chat sessions, networked telephone communications, peer-to-peer networking, etc.